The Right and Wrong Ways to Do Teshuva

As we move through from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, there is a little bump called Tzom Gedaliah, a fast day that we suffered through this past Wednesday, the day after Rosh Hashanah.   Why do we have another fast day for yet another tragedy of the Jews?  Isn't Tisha B'Av enough?  Isn't Asarah b'Tevet enough?  Isn't Shiva Asar B'Tamuz enough?   Plus, why distract us from the Teshuvah process?

It seems to me that Tzom Gedaliah is not like any of those other fasts.  It is not really a fast of mourning, though it is based on a tragedy.   Instead, it is a fast which was established to teach us the wrong way to do teshuva, or how not to do teshuva at this time.

After the destruction of the Temple, Nevuchadnezzar the King of Babylon placed a puppet leader in charge of the small remnant of Jews remaining in Jerusalem who had not been killed or exiled.   That leader was Gedaliah ben Achikam, who at least provided some internal independence for the Jewish community.   

As the book of Yirmiyahu tells us (in Chapters 40-41), Jews loyal to Gedaliah told him that the King of Amon hired a Jew named Yishmael ben Netanya to assasinate Gedaliah.   They suggested killing Yishmael ben Netanya so he would not be able to carry out his plot, kill Gedaliah and destroy the remaining community.

What was Gedaliah's response?   "Do not do this thing, because you are speaking lies about Yishmael".  (Yirmiyahu 40:16).   Needless to say, Yishmael does indeed kill Gedaliah, all the people with him, and the rest of the Jewish community is snuffed out.

Several verses later (41:9), the death of the victims who were massacred by Yishmael is blamed on Gedaliah himself!   Rashi quotes the Talmud as stating that "since he should have listened to the counsel . . . and didn't listen, Scripture considers it as if they were killed by his hand."

Gedaliah didn't want to accept lashon hara.  He didn't want to believe something bad about another.   He is the example of how NOT to do teshuva, and we are warned, right after the inspiration of Rosh Hashanah, not to follow it.

What was wrong with Gedaliah's approach?  Let's say I want to stop listening to lashon hara.

I could either 1) give up on the whole enterprise and listen freely, or 2) never listen at all.

If I do 1), I've obviously failed at the outset.  But if I do 2), then I may miss an opportunity to save someone (or myself) from danger.   But more commonly, I will eventually find it too difficult, and just give up.

This is the wrong way to do teshuva:  A mere resolution to never do the sin again.    Instead,  to be successful, the resolution must be accompanied by 1) a plan for how to avoid sinning, and 2) Torah study to help me navigate the varying circumstances (both inside my own mind and outside of it) that will arise.  

Tzom Gedaliah was not a day of mourning, but the next step after Rosh Hashanah.  We come out of Rosh Hashanah ready to "perfect the world in the Kingdom of God."   The day after Rosh Hashanah, we start thinking about the wrong ways (and by deduction) the right ways to do this.

Chatima Tova.